AI Recorder/AI Flight orientation not working.

[Jaunty Osprey]

I have a large grid miner that is fitted with an AI Flight and AI recorder for the purpose of automatic docking.

Up until now I've had no trouble with it, redone the procedure a few times for different ships.
I disconnect, set the reference beacon, turn the connector off, smoosh the ship into the connector a little, record a couple of waypoints at the connector for parking, and then fly off in a straight line recording a few more points for about 50m. This has worked several times for me, even with this exact ship paired with a couple of different mother ships too. All was well until a couple of days ago where I moved it to a new mother ship.

Now, no matter what I do, the miner will now refuse to orient itself correctly with the waypoints for the new ship/beacon. It will rotate itself to fly to the first one, and then when it gets there stays in whatever orientation it was in when it arrived. Then it moves through the waypoints and slams sideways into the connector.

What's even more confusing, is when I turn on the debug view to see the waypoints I can see that the orientation is being recorded correctly, it just ignores it while docking. So maybe its an issue with the AI Flight block?

I've tried a few different versions of the docking procedure. Collision avoidance off, precision mode on/off, moved the beacon, grinding off components and replacing them, merging and unmerging, converted the mother ship to a station, spaced out the waypoints, did it upside down, restarted game, waited for server restarts, nothing seems to work.

Anyone have any ideas for things I could try? If I don't get it going next time I'm on I'm afraid the next thing I'll try is grinding down the miner and building a new one. Cheers.

[Dan2D3D]

Hi, the saved Drone orientation does not work on Planet, the saved orientation using AI Recorder is working in No Gravity only.

Do you play on Planet ?

[Dan2D3D]

Here is the important to know on planet :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt9yMJrgDxU

[Jaunty Osprey]

This is all in space, sorry I should have mentioned that.

[Dan2D3D]

I that case I would do some testing in Local creative world by pasting the Blueprint of your Mothership and test to have to first clue as to know if it happens on servers only.

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Share some Steam screenshots of your setup and the Drone Path, doing so will help players reading.

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You may share that testing world here so me and Veteran players can load to help you find a working solution.

[Dan2D3D]

The first Drones I tested was in space using one of my Motherships having 10 Drones connected in its hangar and I can tell it is easier in space.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2937400825
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2935501673
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2936844410
You may share a local save ready for me to try your "Bugged" setup.

How to share a world save on the Workshop :

1 - Select your save.

2 - Click the "Publish" button on the left.

3 - Choose a proper Tag, check Steam upload and click the OK button.

4 - Your world will be uploaded to Steam Workshop.

5 - Paste the Workshop item link here.

[Ronin Planetary Industries]

Grind down all the AI blocks involved and install new ones. I'd also grind down and replace any and all remote control blocks.

Then tac-nuke the facility from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

[Jaunty Osprey]

Originally posted by Dan2D3D:

The first Drones I tested was in space using one of my Motherships having 10 Drones connected in its hangar and I can tell it is easier in space.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2937400825
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2935501673
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2936844410
You may share a local save ready for me to try your "Bugged" setup.

How to share a world save on the Workshop :

1 - Select your save.

2 - Click the "Publish" button on the left.

3 - Choose a proper Tag, check Steam upload and click the OK button.

4 - Your world will be uploaded to Steam Workshop.

5 - Paste the Workshop item link here.

Here's the world link with a copy and paste of the miner + processing plant that it won't auto dock with. I tried re-recording it in the local save too and it still wouldn't work.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3055341728

To get the miner to auto dock you can press 6 on the first hotbar to trigger the timer that turns everything on and runs the docking procedure.

Originally posted by Ronin Planetary Industries (RPI):

Grind down all the AI blocks involved and install new ones. I'd also grind down and replace any and all remote control blocks.

Then tac-nuke the facility from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

Disobedience is the first sign of self-awareness, it must be destroyed before it tries to take over.

[Jaunty Osprey]

And here are the screenshots:

First shows the path, if you zoom in you should be able to see that the orientation of the recorded markers is correct.
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198061056350/screenshot/2103802846728693063/

Second shows the ship flying obtusely through the path.
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198061056350/screenshot/2103802846728693723/

Third shows how it lands at the destination.
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198061056350/screenshot/2103802846728694373/

It's frustrating because I'm not exactly new to this, I've built a few missiles and drones out of Grid AI stuff, and this is the 4th iteration of this particular ship and the only one that has given me grief of this kind. I get the orientation having a slight error but this is outright ignoring it.

I'm beginning to think it may be something to do with the mother ship. I can't play any more today but I'll try auto-docking with a different ship again later to see if it still has the same problem.

[Dan2D3D]

Have you created all those waypoints manually or used the auto record option on the AI Recorder?

That is too much waypoints for nothing :
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3055348169

I always create about 3-4 waypoints for the approach vector and I save those manually :
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3021818180

Create waypoints >> Manually << like showed in this video Tuto :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqZrD9tmH_E


___

I am a bit busy atm so I will try your save later and feedback my solution to you.

[Dan2D3D]

Testing done with your creation = The AI Recorder is at a very bad position.

Looks like you did not watched the video I have shared because you placed the AI Recorder at a bad position :
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3055504718

Testing details :

1 - I removed the Beacon on the mining ship because not needed.

2 - Placed new AI Flight + Ai Recorder on top of the connector and aligned with it, also added a Antenna for this test :
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3055510629
3 - Selected the Mothership Beacon in the new AI Recorder :
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3055506192
4 - Created a new "Approach Path" / "Approach Vector" :
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3055505456
5 - Turned ON AI on the new AI Flight and AI Recorder
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Clicked "Play" on the AI Recorder and it completed my "Approach Vector" without any problems :

Waypoint #0
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3055506975
to Waypoint #3 (Mothership connector)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3055507128
Conclusion :
Looks like your setup was not done following the first Video Tuto I have shared, so you placed the AI Recorder at a bad position and probably why it was not working for you.

[Dan2D3D]

I forgot to specify :

-> I've disabled Ai on all your blocks a turned OFF all those to be sure it will use the new ones I placed :
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3055510629

[Jaunty Osprey]

I didn't ignore your video Dan, the fact is that I have been using this miner design with working auto docking since before that video was even made. I'm not a new player.

I have to disagree with your conclusion for a couple of reasons.
The first is that, as most guides will agree, the best practice you put it as close to the connector but to also put it in line with the connectors so that if the angle is slightly off it doesn't result in displacement error in the connector position. If I move it to where you suggested, the small amounts of rotation error on the miner's roll axis that occur will cause the miner to miss the connector on occasion. The recorder is better off where it was, not on top of the connector for this reason. I compensate for this be using a straight approach vector.
Splitsie covers this in his video here at 8:50: https://youtu.be/C5RFVapH-gI?t=530

The second reason is that I tried your solution and it didn't work, see the attached screenshot. It still does not rotate itself to match the waypoints as it comes in to dock.

https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198061056350/screenshot/2103802846729859995/

The thing I think that you're missing (judging by the advice you're giving) is that you think I'm having trouble getting it to align with the connector. That's not the case here. The problem is that the ship isn't rotating at all while following the recorded path no matter how I go about recording it, or where the AI blocks are placed on the grid, or what reference beacon its using.

I can try recording a video of my whole process if you're still confused about what the issue is. Changing the placement did not help, though it is strange that changing the placement did work for you and not for me.

Lastly, just to clear up a few other misconceptions. The path you see in the screenshots is an automatically recorded one, but I have tried both manual and automatic and have gotten the same results. I chose to show an automatically recorded one with an erratic approach vector because the orientation indicators on the markers clearly show that orientation is being recorded by the AI recorder correctly and that it is tracking the grid orientation. I normally use a manual one in practice to get a straight approach vector, I'm sorry if this confused you as to what my process normally is. What I normally use is manual points in a straight line to the connector to get everything to line up, but that's not working now because the ship isn't rotating to align properly.

[Dan2D3D]

I am not confused, you specified it was a "Not working setup" so I tried my setup/tried a different setup and it worked.

I think the best would be to send your "not working setup" to the SE programmers, I can tell they realy like it when we can give them a video of the bug, they will test it and tell you if they will fix/update the game for that "not working" setup.

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Sorry for my bad English, I meant to show a working solution shared in those videos.


Edit
Sorry corrections made.

[Dan2D3D]

I will upload your save with my working solution, you will be able to load it and see if it works for you, be back later ...

[Dan2D3D]

I just finished watching the video you shared and it's a good one showing a working solution that is about what I do except when he create/add waypionts starting on the connector and use the reverse waypoints button to properly setup the order.

It's a trick I will surely use now so thanks for telling me to watch it.

Now I will go in your save and share it for you to try my setup ....